Price one coaster and a batch of ten

A one-off can cost much more per item than a batch because setup and shipping are charged once per order. The example below uses a generic decorated coaster, with every input deliberately assumed in U.S. dollars. It is not a supplier quote, a measured making session, a price recommendation or evidence that customers will pay the result.

Open one coaster in the calculator or ten coasters. Change the inputs to your own receipts, paid time and observed waste. Use the source-documented printed coaster project to identify the actual supplies, but do not treat the assumed prices here as quotes for its named products.

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Suppose a blank pack has ten blanks and costs $20. Buying it uses $20 cash; one attempted coaster consumes a $2 blank. Suppose a transfer/protection pack costs $10 and supports ten attempts under your own measured usage: that contributes $1 per attempt. The assumed starter consumable basket is therefore $30, while material consumed in one attempt is $3. Leftover usable stock remains available for later work.

There is no complete buy-from-zero total until every equipment/accessory quote and delivery charge is known. “Already owned” changes today’s checkout spending; it does not erase wear, maintenance or the replacement cost of materials. The worked order model assumes no equipment allocation, rent, design license, income tax or other overhead. Add a justified allowance to Other item costs or Other order costs rather than leaving a real expense out.

The two energy minutes are a costing assumption, not a press setting. They omit separately measured preheat and standby energy; add those to order costs when relevant. Six production minutes include assumed handling and making time, independent of the blank’s heat dwell.

Each attempt costs $3 materials + $2 labor + $0.01 energy = $5.01. A 10% failure allowance leaves 90% yield, so expected attempt cost per saleable item is $5.01 ÷ 0.90 = $5.5667. Add $0.50 packaging for $6.0667 per saleable item.

The exact required price is (order cost + $0.30) ÷ [quantity × (1 − 0.03 − 0.30)]. Calculate with unrounded inputs, then round the required unit price upward to cents. The ten-item price is lower because the same $18 order overhead is spread across more saleable items. This does not establish a volume discount you should offer.

Expected attempts can be fractional in a planning model; a real purchase cannot. The illustrative ten-blank pack is insufficient for eleven or twelve attempts. If buying whole ten-packs, twelve planned attempts require two blank packs, plus enough transfer/protection. Choose spare quantities deliberately: an expected 10% loss rate is not a guarantee that twelve attempts will yield ten successes.

At these assumptions, break-even before a target margin is about $25.13 for the one-off and $8.15 per item for ten. That covers only the listed costs and fees. A 30% target margin differs from a 30% markup on cost. Separately charged shipping, pass-through sales tax and tax/accounting treatment are outside this merchandise-revenue model; record them separately and get appropriate advice for your business.

If the resulting price is above what a buyer will pay, change a real input or decline the job. Do not force the number down by setting your labor to zero. Time one trial, count every failed blank and used sheet, then rerun both quantities. The DTF comparison uses the same calculator to expose the assumptions behind two different garment jobs.

Download the blank cost PDF to gather inputs or the example XLSX to calculate offline. Those files do not contain values you typed on this website. Save the online calculation in Saved plans if you want to return to that entered scenario.